MGX Minerals Inc's petrolithium ambitions progressed another step today.
Its engineering partner PurLucid Treatment Solutions has kicked off operational testing on the Li-1 lithium recovery unit at its facility in Calgary, Alberta.
This plant is capable of processing 20 m3 per day and will be expanded to increase throughput to 100m3/day.
Waste brine is a major disposal problem for the oil and gas industry, but MGX believes this new technology will allow some portion of the water to be reusable while also extracting metals and minerals.
The initial testing will be on brine samples from obtained from MGX's lithium and petrolithium properties and as well as its oil and gas partners.
Testing is currently underway to finalize technical specifications for contractual arrangements with industrial and oil and gas partners, the firm noted.
"This system represents the physical and operational templates that move us from bench scale to the field and provide the engineering basis for large commercial systems (>1500 m 3 /day) we expect to deploy into MGX's property and partner base," said Jared Lazerson, the chief executive of MGX Minerals Inc.
Alongside this pilot testing, MGX said that the manufacturing of a commercial-scale system capable of processing 200 m3 per day is underway and expected to be ready to deploy in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Based on results of pilot plant testing, the firm then plans to ship commercial-scale systems to sites in the US and Canada beginning in the first quarter of 2018.
The firm also noted that MGX and PurLucid have now fully integrated their respective technologies.
Shares added over 9% in Toronto to 96 cents.